Main menu

Dakar Rally 2013: Saturday stage rained out; teams rest Sunday

January 12, 2013

Organizers canceled Saturday's stage at the Dakar Rally after parts of the course became virtually impossible to navigate. Photo by DAKAR.COM

As the Dakar Rally enjoys its traditional rest day halfway through the action on Sunday, Mini X Raid driver Stephane Peterhansel continues to lead -- despite a day of chaos on Jan. 12, that ultimately led to the stage being cancelled.

Peterhansel actually lost 12 minutes in the difficult conditions. Peterhansel's struggles could have put Red Bull's Nasser Al Attiyah into the lead, but the Qatari made an even more costly mistake.

Torrential rain and swollen rivers made this the trickiest day of action since the Dakar began on Jan. 5, as a result of which the stage was shortened dramatically, with organizers chopping out the worst sections.

Conditions were so bad that only five competitors made it to the finish, with the SMG buggy of Guerlain Chicherit winning the stage.

Shortly afterward, competitors neutralized the results. “When we got to the river, there was about three meters of water,” said Al Attiyah. “There was absolutely no way that we could cross that.”

The five competitors who finished were allowed to keep their times, with everyone else being given the time of Peterhansel: the last person to finish before the stage was stopped. Consequently the top positions haven't changed, with the gaps between the leaders remaining unaltered. Peterhansel leads Al Attiyah by 3 minutes, 14 seconds, with Giniel de Villiers a distant third in his Toyota.

For de Villiers, the 2009 Dakar winner, adverse conditions like those that the competitors have just experienced present a golden opportunity.

“We lack the power and performance to compete up front, unfortunately we cannot quite be there, but we've got to look to the future,” said de Villiers. “We're running with a new regulation already, with a standard engine, and the front cars are running with highly modified engines, so if we take that we're doing pretty good. We tried to push. If we have stages like today I think anything is possible because a lot of things can happen. It's not easy, but that's what we're looking for: the more difficult it gets, the better it is for us.”